A local photographer became part of the all-volunteer TEAM Underride — offering his skills to capture a day in the life of an underride crash test crew at the Raleigh Underride Crash Test Event on August 3 at the North Carolina State Highway Patrol training facility. Here’s a glimpse of that day from a photographer’s perspective: Team Underride Crash Test Event.
Note: Adam Trevillian provided these photos for TEAM Underride to use. If outside sources would like to use these photos (for publications, etc.), please contact Adam so that he can handle those requests: adam@adamtrevillian.com.
AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety (ALMFTS) is collaborating with State Highway Patrols & safety groups to demonstrate engineering solutions at 2-day Underride Crash Test Events in at least 4 regions of the U.S.
Each Regional Event will include multiple crash tests — including one with & one without a side guard — as well as a keynote speaker & panel discussion to educate first responders, crash investigators, insurers, regulators, & the trucking industry on the deadly underride problem and solutions.
As plans develop, information will be provided here on the schedule and locations where Crash Test Events will take place during 2023. Potential sites under consideration include Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Indiana, New York, and New Mexico. Subject to change.
Donors:
We are thankful for The Law Firm for Truck Safety, who graciously offered to match all donations up to $25,000. They were later joined by the Academy of Trucking Accident Attorneys (ATAA), who have added another $25,000 to our matching challenge. We welcome contributions of any size and wish to recognize all of our Business Partners and TEAM Underride Partners here.
How You Can Help TEAM Underride:
Contact us at marianne@annaleahmary.com, if you would like to become involved in planning and/or participating in the Tour.
For instructions on how you can donate to AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, contact us at: marianne@annaleahmary.com.
Safety engineers and professionals share their knowledge and thoughts in a Panel Discussion on the underride issue at the D.C. Underride Crash Test Event on March 26, 2019:
David Friedman, Consumer Reports, VP, Advocacy, formerly the CR Director of Cars and Product Policy and Analysis, former NHTSA Acting Administrator
Malcolm Deighton, engineer with Hydro, which supplies aluminum for manufacturing underride protective devices and trailer parts and which produces comprehensive underride protection technology in Europe
Perry Ponder, inventor of AngelWing, engineer with an accident reconstruction engineering company
David Dorrity, worked for Stevens Transport for years and testifies all over the country on safe trucking practices.
Aaron Kiefer, forensic engineer & crash reconstructionist, inventor of SafetySkirt
Moderated by Andy Young, truck litigation attorney and CDL holder.
The discussion can be viewed in four consecutive videos below.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Thank you, Perry, David, Malcolm, Aaron, Glen, David, and Andy, for taking the time to share your knowledge and thoughts on the underride problem and solutions to this deadly but preventable traffic tragedy.
Note: Video of the crash tests are available here.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety once again did a fantastic job of hosting the Underride Roundtable. They have now provided us with links to the Second Underride Roundtable held at the IIHS Vehicle Research Center in Ruckersville, Virginia, on August 29, 2017. Here is the agenda, followed by the videos:
Truck Underride Roundtable 2 – Morning Session, Part 1:
Truck Underride Roundtable 2 – Morning Session, Part 2:
Truck Underride Roundtable 2 – Side Guard Panel:
Truck Underride Roundtable 2 – Industry Response and Crash Avoidance Panel:
Side Guard Crash Test at 40 mph on August 29, 2017:
Side Underride & Side Guard Crash Tests at 35 mph at IIHS on March 30 & 31, 2017:
Imagine. The new guard did what it was supposed to do! There was no Passenger Compartment Intrusion. The driver in this car survived.
Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Stoughton. Thank you, Trucking Industry for responding to the research and our pleas. Thank you, everyone who has supported this effort.
Here are the crash tests done by IIHS on the 5 major trailer manufacturers who have voluntarily improved their rear underride guard:
I have seen quite a few underride guard crash tests in the last two years. It’s not something I ever planned to do and it is never easy. Some of them ended in severe underride and it always shakes me up at how quickly life can change forever. In a matter of seconds.
The crash test I viewed at IIHS on January 19, 2017, was particularly hard to watch. It was a test of Great Dane’s newly designed rear underride guard. A Great Dane trailer was what our Crown Vic collided with on May 4, 2013 — with tragic results.
Demonstration of Improvement in Rear Underride Guard; Great Dane Trailers Crash Test at IIHS, January 19, 2017:
They have proven that creative minds can come up with better underride protection. The cars are damaged from the crash, but underride and Passenger Compartment Intrusion (PCI) are prevented. Lives are preserved.
Here is a Youtube video, posted by Cars-Trucks TV, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the improved rear underride guards designed by five of the major trailer manufacturers — Great Dane, Manac, Stoughton, Vanguard, and Wabash — from 2013 to 2017. They received a Toughguard award from IIHS — as announced on March 1, 2017.
Here is an excerpt: It is my fervent hope that, when March 2017 rolls around, we will be celebrating a vastly improved federal standard–enthusiastically and immediately adopted by the trucking industry–for all-around-the-truck underride protection at higher speeds, including now-exempt single unit trucks as well as retrofitted to existing trucks and trailers.
If this seems like a costly venture, try comparing it to the price paid by thousands upon thousands of individuals and families during the past decades of ineffective underride protection–added to the countless precious people who will be saved in the years to come from tragic, preventable death by underride.
We aren’t finished yet, but we have come a long ways!
Great progress is being made in underride protection on the sides of large trucks in the month of January 2017. While Aaron Kiefer is preparing for a crash test of his innovative TrailerSafe System side/rear guard on January 20 in North Carolina, Airflow Deflector tested Perry Ponder’s Angel Wing side guard design in New York.
The Angel Wing crash test was declared a success: the side guard prevented the side of the trailer from going past the windshield thus promising protection from Passenger Compartment Intrusion (PCI). In other words, it is likely that, due to the side guard in combination with the crashworthiness of the car, no one would have been killed or seriously injured by the collision between the side of this truck and a smaller passenger vehicle.
Side underride is not a new problem. For too long, nothing has been done about it. Yet here are two unique and innovative solutions to protect us from deadly side underride. Two Life-Savers.
I count myself privileged to be cheering these innovative and compassionate engineers on in their important work which will save countless lives. Now, here’s to getting these marvelous inventions onto the trucks we all drive around each day. . .
“‘He pled the cause of the afflicted and needy;
Then it was well.
Is not that what it means to know Me?’ declares the LORD.
“For he will deliver the needy when he cries for help,
The afflicted also, & him who has no helper.
He will have compassion on the poor & needy,
And the lives of the needy he will save.
He will rescue their life from oppression & violence;
And their blood will be precious in his sight.”
Jeremiah 22:16 and Psalm 72:12-14
We are grateful that Wabash has taken the initiative to improve rear underride protection on the trailers which they manufacture, as seen on their website: RIG-16 REAR UNDERRIDE GUARD SYSTEM
RIG-16 REAR UNDERRIDE GUARD SYSTEM
For the past three years, Wabash National has spent considerable time, capital and facility resources in R&D specifically focused on enhancing rear impact guard performance. As part of these efforts, we conducted numerous crash tests, and consulted and worked with some of the premiere testing facilities in the country. The new RIG-16 system is designed to:
Prevent vehicle underride in multiple offset impact scenarios
Better absorb and deflect vehicle impact at any point along the bumper
Exceed U.S. (FMVSS) and Canadian (CMVSS) requirements
Key Design Features
To achieve our performance objectives, our engineering and product development teams incorporated a number of design enhancements that are engineered to work together, as a system, to better absorb energy and deflect impact.
Engineered a bolt-on, integrated rear impact guard system that better absorbs and deflects impact energy
Added two vertical bumper legs to the design for a total of four
Placed the outer vertical bumper legs closer to the sides of the trailer
Constructed the bumper legs and tube of a higher-strength steel
Hot-dip galvanized the assembly
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2015/0258951 and other patents pending
When I google the words “money” and “funding” and “underride guards” and “crash tests,” I mostly come up with links to things which I have written. Try it. If you find someone willing to hand out money for these things, please let me know right away!
Meanwhile, I will keep asking anyone and everyone to help us out:
